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Nation & World

New Horizons is in the home stretch. With fewer than 500,000 miles and less than a day to go until the NASA spacecraft whizzes by Pluto, the images it’s lobbing back across the roughly 3 billion-mile distance between Earth and Pluto are continuing to turn up fresh surprises.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Declaring that gay unions deserve equal respect and dignity under the law, the Supreme Court ruled Friday that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry nationwide without regard to their state’s laws.

Authorities hunted through Charleston, S.C., early Thursday searching for a white gunman who opened fire at a prayer meeting in a historic black African American church, killing nine people in what officials called a hate crime.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Artificial trans fat will be removed from the U.S. food supply over the next three years under a ruling by regulators that the products pose health risks that contribute to heart disease.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Background checks by the Transportation Security Administration cleared 73 people for access to secure airport areas even though their names were on a federal database of possible terrorists, a senior official told a Senate committee Tuesday.

COPENHAGEN, N.Y. — Copenhagen, Denmark, has nothing on Copenhagen, N.Y., where a flier in the post office trumpets upcoming snowmobile drag races and the sound of an occasional “splat!” signals the plummet of an icy chunk from a weary roof onto Main Street.

MONTGOMERY, W.Va. — Small fires continued to burn for a third day at the site of the latest crude oil train derailment, more than 100 people remain locked out of their homes and investigators trying to determine the cause endured work in subzero temperatures.

CHICAGO — Mimi Koberlein woke up one morning unable to smell the bacon her husband was frying for breakfast. Confused, she ran to the shower, grabbed her shampoo and inhaled deeply. Nothing. Two years later, Koberlein, 47, still can’t smell lemons, freshly cut grass, her three boys or any other fragrances of life. Diagnosed with anosmia, or smell loss, she has tried decongestants, nasal irrigation, oral steroids and acupuncture. But nothing has worked.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A requirement from the U.S. Department of Transportation last month to limit the release of information about Bakken crude oil shipments by rail has set up a conflict between railroads, states and the federal government that could wind up in court.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Barack Obama on Monday signed an executive order that lets millions of college graduates cap their student loan payments at 10 percent of their income, a move he says will help “open the doors of opportunity for all.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. — At the rate they’re going, it will take another 107 years until women hold half the seats in Congress, according to a study by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, a nonpartisan group that studies female-centered issues.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Foreign-born grandchildren, nieces and nephews of Americans and legal immigrants will lose their place in line to obtain a visa if they reach age 21 before the process is complete, the Supreme Court ruled Monday.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Almost as soon as hearty congratulations were issued by lawmakers last week over Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl’s release from captivity in Afghanistan, some were just as swiftly withdrawn.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — With bipartisan support, the House of Representatives on Monday passed a bill authorizing $17.6 billion in fiscal 2014 spending for U.S. space programs, roughly matching President Barack Obama’s budget request and underscoring the nation’s commitment to sending American astronauts into deep space.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Normally, a baseball player gets invited to the White House by winning the World Series. New York Mets second baseman Daniel Murphy did it Monday by missing the first two games of this season.

Unemployment takes a significant toll on the mental health of workers, especially those who have been out of their jobs for at least 27 weeks — what the Bureau of Labor Statistics considers the “long-term unemployed.”